Danny Ch. 04

I was busy as hell at work that morning so I didn't spend any time thinking on the Mandy situation, but it was brought home to me when I headed for lunch. Appsolar had an employee cafeteria. I didn't notice anything until I got to the cashier and looked around for a table. That's when I noticed Mandy and Haight sitting at a table on one side of the room and Gary and Claudia sitting on the other side. I picked an empty table in the center and moved to it and sat down. Mandy got up from the table she shared with Haight, picked up her tray and walked over and sat down with me.

"I didn't know you would be here or I would have waited for you" she said and looking over her shoulder I saw Haight looking at me with murder in his eyes. I could have been a total asshole and smiled at him but I didn't. I did see Claudia looking our way and laughing as she leaned toward Gary and said something.

Back at work I was again too busy to give much thought to things, but even so I wasn't surprised to find Mandy sitting in her car next to mine when I got off work. She rolled down her window and said:

"Lead the way lover and I'll be right behind you."

That night we did take the time to eat dinner and Mandy brought me up to date. She had graduated three weeks earlier than I had and had come right to work at Appsolar. She had interned there the previous two summers and already had a job locked in before she graduated. Haight had started a week later and since they knew each other they gravitated toward each other. Haight was in Sales and Mandy was in Purchasing so they interacted with each other both on and off the job and had dated until I came on the scene.

Once again I must mention that I'm not dumb. I knew when she said the had dated until I got there she had more than likely ended those dates with a cock buried in her. Did I car? Not one bit. In fact I got a bit of a chuckle out of it. Back in high school when I had dumped Mandy and she had started going with Haight he used to smirk at me and I had no doubt that in his mind he was thinking that he had taken her away from me. I wondered if he was remembering that now.

For the rest of the week Mandy had lunch with me in the cafeteria and every lunch hour Haight was eating alone at a table and throwing dirty looks at me. Mandy no longer waited for me to get off work so she could follow me home. She just left work and drove over to my place. I'd given her a key and she was usually waiting for me to give me dessert before dinner.

It all came to a head on Friday. When I left work and got to my car I found Haight leaning on the left fender. As I approached he pushed off of it and planted himself in my way.

"I don't know what you are trying to pull asshole" he said, "But I want you to stay away from Mandy."

"Fuck you Haight. In case you hadn't noticed Mandy came to me; I didn't go to her. You were in the parking lot that first day when she waited by my car for me. That was her choice. The next day in the cafeteria she got up from your table and came over to mine. Again, that was her choice. I didn't come over to your table to invite her to join me. She came over and joined me so eat shit and die asswipe. You have problems with Mandy spending time with me you need to take it up with her. I suggest you get the fuck out of my way so I can go home."

Then he did what I expected and swung at me. I blocked it and punched him in the face. Blood spurted from his nose, his hands flew up to his face and I buried my fist in his stomach and he doubled over.

"Just like old times right Donny? That's the third time I've bloodied your nose. You might want to see what you can do to break the habit."

I pushed him out of the way and as I got in my car I noticed Claudia and Gary watching from where they were standing next to Gary's car.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Over the weekend Mandy worked hard on me to let her move in with me. By Sunday night she had convinced me that it would be a good thing so I finally agreed. Over the next week she moved all of her stuff into my place and from then on it was like we were a married couple. I know that as far as Mandy was concerned we would be getting married in the future, but I wasn't all that sure of it.

I still remembered how Mandy had been in the past and besides that I wasn't all that sure I wanted to get married for a while. I wanted to see where things were going with my job before making up my mind that it was a permanent thing. And I do have to admit that in the back of my mind I still thought a lot about Pauline.

The next three months slid by and I was getting more comfortable with the idea that I had a future at Appsolar. Mandy and I seemed to be getting along well and she was hinting that it was time for a ring. One of the reasons she wanted a ring on her finger was to give her some assurance that she was going to be my wife.

Why did she think she needed that assurance? Most likely because of the weekly phone calls I was getting from Pauline asking me if I'd come to my senses yet and ready to come back to her where I belonged. Even though I kept telling Pauline that I was happy with my job and wouldn't be leaving it Mandy worried that it might not be so.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Life changed again for me on the first Friday of my fifth month at Appsolar. Part of my job in Quality Control and Customer Support was traveling to visit customers to go over their requirements and handle any problems that might have cropped up in their using our products.

I had just finished spending the day with a customer in Dallas and was in my hotel room roughing out my trip report when my cell phone rang. It was Claudia and she wanted to know when I'd be returning and what flight I would be on. I told her and she told me that she wanted to meet me in one of the restaurants close to the airport.

"I need to talk with you about a problem that I have."

"What kind of a problem?"

"I don't want to get into it over the phone. One thing though; please don't tell anyone that we are meeting. You will understand why when we talk."

We made arrangements to meet and then said our goodbyes. The next day over Cobb salads she said:

"You aren't going to like hearing this, but I have to do it. I think too much of you to keep quiet about it. Mandy is cheating on you."

"What?"

"She is cheating on you big time and you need to know before yo do something stupid like marrying the whore."

"How do you know?"

"Because the guy she is cheating on you with is gary."

"Your fiancée?"

"Ex fiancée."

She went on to tell me the story. She was in Baltimore to do an audit on our plant there and she was supposed to be gone three days, but they finished in two and she flew home early. She walked in on Gary pounding Mandy in the butt. They were facing away from the door and didn't know that Claudia was there. She took out her cell phone, recorded the scene and turned and left.

"The only reason I recorded it was for insurance."

"Insurance? Against what?"

"Things could get sticky when I let the asshole know I'm dumping his ass. Given his position in the company he might just decide to do something to get me laid off or fired. My having a video of him fucking a fellow employee should make him back off. What are you going to do?"

"Short term? Nothing. Mandy is a great piece of ass and since we aren't married I'll keep her around until I can look around and find a likely replacement."

"Why waste time looking?"

"What do you mean?"

"I seem to remember that we were pretty good together."

"You serious?"

"As death and taxes."

"I don't know Gary, but I'm willing to bet he will be seriously pissed when you take up with me. I may need a copy of your insurance for myself."

"I'm letting him know tonight that he is an ex."

"Then I might as well let Mandy know tonight that she is history."

"Luckily I still have my own place even though I rarely spent a night there so all I'm going to have to do is pack the things I have at Gary's. I'm going there from here and I'll have it all in my car when he gets home and gets the news."

"It may take me a day or so to get Mandy out of my place. She gave up her apartment when she moved in with me and it just isn't in me to pack up all of her stuff, put it outside and tell her to take a hike. I'm not near as pissed with her as you are with Gary. We haven't talked marriage although she has dropped a hint a time or two."

"You have my cell number so keep me posted. Just don't dump her until I call you and tell you Gary is gone. I don't want her calling him and giving him a heads up."

I left the restaurant, went into work and turned in my report and expense account form and then took the rest of the day off. I stopped at a U-Haul place and bought some boxes and then went home. Once there I walked through the place and made a mental list of what would need to be boxed up and then I hit the fridge, got myself a beer and then settled in to await developments.

Mandy got home at 5:35 and the door hadn't even fully closed behind her when the phone rang. It was Claudia and she said:

"It is done."

"Mandy just got here so I'll get it done too."

"Who was that?" Mandy asked.

"Claudia."

"What did she want?"

"Just wanted me to know that she kicked Gary to the curb."

"Why would she do that? Call you I mean.'

"She likes me and she thought I should know."

"I don't understand."

"Simple. She walked in on you and Gary fucking and she didn't think that it was something her fiancée should be doing. She thought I should know in case I had strong enough feelings for you that I might be considering buying you a ring. She thought it was information I should have on hand when I was in the decision making process."

She looked at me in silence for almost a minute before saying, "I suppose you want me to move out?"

"I stopped at U-Haul and got some moving boxes."

"It wasn't hurting us any. I only did it when you were gone. I was all yours when you were here."

"Why did you do it in the first place?"

"I felt I owed him for getting me the job."

"Care to explain that?"

"We hooked up when I interned here and then the next summer when I interned again we reconnected. When it was time for me to go back to school he told me that I was the best buddy that he'd ever had and that he liked me enough to get me on full time when I graduated so we could keep on and I told him that I'd like that. He got me the job so I felt that I owed him."

"You should have considered that debt paid in full when you moved in with me Mandy. You can take a couple of days to get your stuff together and find a place, but you will be sleeping on the couch. Understand?"

She packed up all of her stuff and a day later on Saturday she moved it out into her car. As she was getting ready to leave she said:

"I would have stopped if we had gotten married."

"The time for you to have stopped was when you moved in with me not the day you were caught. I wish you good luck Mandy and I hope you have a happy life, but it won't be with me."

There were tears running down her cheeks when she left, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I was probably a little young to be so cynical, but to me if she was going to run around on me while she was living with me she would probably run around on me if we were married.

I spent Sunday cleaning the apartment and boxing up the few things that Mandy had left behind.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Monday Claudia stuck her head in my cubicle and said, "I don't want to eat lunch in the cafeteria for a while. Buy me lunch at the VI?"

"Meet you in the parking lot at twelve."

I was glad that she had stopped by because I really wasn't looking forward to seeing and having to avoid Mandy in the cafeteria.

As soon as we were in the car Claudia asked, "How did it go?"

"She wasn't happy, but she didn't fight it."

"She tell you why?"

"She said she felt she owed him."

"Whatever for?"

I took the recorder out of my pocket as I was saying, "I expected her to try and explain and I thought if she brought up Gary and I had what she said on tape I'd have the same kind of insurance that you have."

I hit the play button and she listened to what Mandy had said. She listened and then said:

"I can't hold what he did with her while she was an intern against him because we did have an agreement. It was that agreement that let me play with you. He knew as well as I did that the agreement was history as soon as I graduated and came home."

"How did he take it?"

"He was pissed. Said that it was really nothing for me to worry about and that it would have ended when we got married. I told him pretty much what you told her; that it should have been over when I came home. Then he told me that I might want to rethink things; that it might have an impact on my future employment. That's when I called him a low-life piece of shit and told him about the video. He called me a bitch and I laughed at him and left."

"I guess what we do now is avoid them as much as we can and get on with life."

And that is just what we did.

Claudia didn't move out of her place and into mine, but she did spend a hell of a lot more time at mine that she did at hers. At least she woke up more mornings at my place than she did at hers.

Things went along just fine for the next three months. Gary wasn't heard from and Mandy took up with Haight again and whenever we were around each other he would have a smirk on his face like he was saying "I took your woman" and I would smile at him while thinking that "You'll get yours dickhead. She'll cheat on you one of these days."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So Claudia and I had a good three months together and then as a famous philosopher once said, "Shit happens."

It was just a little after three on a Friday and I was sitting at my desk going over the report I needed to turn into my boss on my latest trip to Atlanta when my secretary (actually she wasn't mine; I shared her with three others) rang and said there was a Miss French there to see me. "What the fuck!" I thought. I hadn't heard from Pauline in almost two months. I had been hearing from her at least once a week and always it was to ask me if I was ready to come back to here where I belonged and I always told her that I was settled in at my job and wouldn't be leaving it and suddenly she stopped calling.

I told Alice to send her back and there she was suddenly at the entrance to my cubicle and she was as drop dead gorgeous as ever and as I stood to greet her I said:

"This is certainly a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I finally accepted that you weren't going to come to me so I figured I'd better get off my butt and get her to you."

"You can't be serious."

"Of course I am. I've told you since high school I was going to marry you. My mother is pissed that she won't get to do the big wedding she wanted. That is she won't unless I can talk you into going back for a wedding. If not it is no big deal to me. A civil ceremony will work for me. Just find a justice of the peace and go for it."

And wouldn't you just know that at that exact moment Claudia walked in.

"Ready to go to lunch lover bunny?" and then she noticed Pauline sitting off to the side. Pauline? When did you get here?"

"Ten minutes ago. I came to claim my man."

"I can tell from the look on Dan's face he didn't know you were coming."

"Are you two hooked up?" Pauline asked.

"I think we three need to hit the restaurant at the Hilton where we can get a stiff drink or two and talk about things" Claudia said.

"Stiff drink. Right!" I said as I stood up.

When we got to the parking lot Claudia said, "Pauline will ride with me and we will meet you there."

I wouldn't know what to say to either one of them if they rode with me so I just said, "See you there" and got in my car. On the drive to the Hilton my mind was working in overdrive on the situation at hand. Claudia and I had a good thing going. True it was only a friends with benefits relationship and neither of us were talking about making it anything more than that. I liked Claudia a lot, but there wasn't any love there. There hadn't been any when we were in school. Some affection? Yes, but no love, none at all.

On the other hand I'd always liked the possibility of being married to Pauline; I'd just figured it would never happen. Not because I didn't want it, but because I'd always thought that things would change in the time we were apart. But those years were in the past and now here was Pauline coming 'to claim her man" as she had put it.

Of course also running through my mind was why Claudia had wanted Pauline to ride with her and just what might they be talking about?

I arrived first and I went in and got us a table. I was no sooner seated than the girls walked in. They were talking to each other, smiling and laughing and I didn't know if what was coming was going to be good or bad. The two of them sat down and I looked at them expectantly. Pauline read my facial expression correctly and said:

"After we order."

As if on cue the waitress walked up and took our order and then left to turn it in and as soon as she was gone Claudia said:

"We had a long talk on the way over here and we both know where we are on this, but what we don't know is where you are."

"I'm not sure of what to say here."

"Let me make it easy for you. Do you see what we have together since our dumping our deadwood as leading to marriage?"

That was an easy one for me to answer and I said, "No; not at all. Our relationship, at least from my side, was a great super-duper friends with benefits relationship."

"Good" Claudia said. "I'm glad we got that settled."

She read the look on my face and said, "That is all that it was to me too. I like you one hell of a lot, but I'm not in love with you."

"What that means Danny" Pauline said, "Is that there are no roadblocks keeping us from getting with the program I've had since high school. All we have to decide on is whether to turn my mother loose on setting up a wedding ordo a civil ceremony here."

I was never against marriage to Pauline. It was just that although I would like it I never expected it to happen. I looked from Pauline to Claudia and then back to Pauline before shrugging my shoulders and surrendering.

"Your call Pauline. I remember my dad once saying that a man's only role in a." wedding is to show up on time."

Pauline and Claudia high-fived across the table and Pauline took out her cell phone, made a call and then said:

"Hi mom. You're good to go. He says he will show up on time."

And so it came to pass.

The wedding took place in our home town and we honeymooned in Aruba. Two years later Jessica Marie joined us and a year and a half later Daniel Alex junior joined us.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As with any story there are some loose ends that need to be tied up.

One was that during the planning of the wedding I found myself alone a time or two with Mrs. French and she told me why she stopped calling me.

"I love my husband Dan and even though he wasn't getting the job done in the bedroom I didn't want to lose him. If he was suspicious enough to put private detectives on me he would have eventually found out what I was doing and I couldn't have that. The only solution for me was to quit cold turkey before he could find out anything."

I smiled and told her that I understood, but that she needed to be on her guard around me and that I'd probably have a hard time keeping my hands off of her even if she was my mother in law. I was kidding of course, but I wasn't all that sure that she was when she told me she would probably have a hard time keeping hers off of me. And in fact neither of us could do it. Over the next several years whenever we were around each other and no one was looking I would fondle her tits or ass and mumble something like: